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Topic: Old friends now xtians (Read 1614 times)

Thanks to FaceBook, I’ve come to see a number of old high school people (from 30+ years ago) who have now “found Jesus”. Now, as most of you know, I was born & raised in a bible-thumping Christian home, and fortunately woke up from the delusion ~25 years ago. During high school, I felt like I was the only one with such beliefs, and for the most part, I likely was. These individuals who are now posting or “liking” christian related items & images on FB were certainly not religious during high school, and it boggles my mind how someone in adulthood can come to believe such supernatural nonsense.

I guess if one doesn’t learn, keep and use critical thinking skills in adulthood (and we see an abundance of that all around us don’t we?), then I suppose that if they get “loved on” by some Christians and get lured into that sense of community, then it’s entirely possible, but I just find it so shocking, and sad. I want to let fly with the arsenal of material I have at hand, but FB is not the right venue for that (for me anyway). Boy I’d like to let fly on this insane page:https://www.facebook.com/JesusDaily

So does anyone share my experience of seeing their old friends become hypnotized by christinsanity?

I think a lot your past HS friends were not religious, but were inculcated to see it as a good thing. Belief in belief, a little bit of the stupid, and/or the crazy, and it's only a hop skip and a jump to snake handling.

As a schizoid I don't really have or want friends. I have people I know with whom I am friendly and I have people that would be friends except they are more like relatives, but unlike relatives I got to choose them. I've got to admit that I have no use for Facebook and only have an account under a fake name and treat it like a joke.

The high school friends for me are now 40+ years so we are all grandfatherly now. I've thought about that time in my life recently and now see that was the best time of my life with people who truly were my friends but I was too much in the midst of teenaged angst to appreciate it. Over these decades I have not kept in touch with them and occasionally see them around town. I don't think any of them have really found religion, though.

I work for a Christian organization--the one with the kettle, although I don't work specifically at the church or have anything to do with the religion and it's not at all pushed on me in any way. I do have the good fortune of working with a man who is my supervisor, nearly young enough to be my son, who is a very dedicated evangelical Christian. We have some good and honest talks about religion, but he respects what I believe and does not try to change me. I respect what he believes as well and have no desire to change what he believes. I do make him think and I believe I do make him think more critically about his Christianity. In the end though for him it comes down to a matter of faith as opposed to arguments or evidence. He is very big into Facebook though.

I once made a thread here about how the Major at my work told me that one of the short comings he saw in our public schools is that they did not teach critical thinking which perplexed me since it would seem critical thinking and Christianity do not play well together.

During high school, I felt like I was the only one with such beliefs, and for the most part, I likely was.

No, you weren't. Nobody talked about what they really thought, and in the absence of a channel for discussing such things the thoughts become repressed. Over time repression creates either anger or acceptance.

These individuals who are now posting or “liking” christian related items & images on FB were certainly not religious during high school, and it boggles my mind how someone in adulthood can come to believe such supernatural nonsense.

Much like the friends I have on Facebook, a few things happened to them.

First, they are not sufficiently inquisitive about the world in which they live. They do not investigate other things posted to Facebook, but accept them as fact. ("It's on the internet, so it must be true because I know it must be true.") Because there are things happening in the world that seem odd, wrong or outlandish, they latch on to whatever explanation someone gives them, and often it is a religious explanation. Without validation that a non-god or non-religious life is possible, they slowly accept that god must be real.

Second, their lives now revolve around raising their children from infants through college, and along the way they need help. They have a need for day care, pre-school/kindergarten, regular schooling (public or private), extracurricular activities (music, dance, sports) and some adult interaction (potluck dinners, movie nights, camping weekends, etc). Who is providing that support system? Churches. Certainly there are other groups who provide similar services, but by and large churches provide most of those experiences in a single entity. It's easier to associate with one place that does these things than ten others.

Third, after becoming ensnared in that black hole of religious participation, they find that all of their friends are within that religious social circle. They don't have friends outside it, not much anyway. And, to dare leave that circle means that they dare leave their friends (or vice-versa). The thing from which they gained social support now has a stranglehold on their intellectual capacity and every day activities. They cannot imagine leaving the circle. They cannot imagine not being part of a group, their group, right there, right in front of them. The church successfully kills their capacity for change.

I guess if one doesn’t learn, keep and use critical thinking skills in adulthood (and we see an abundance of that all around us don’t we?), then I suppose that if they get “loved on” by some Christians and get lured into that sense of community, then it’s entirely possible, but I just find it so shocking, and sad. I want to let fly with the arsenal of material I have at hand, but FB is not the right venue for that (for me anyway). Boy I’d like to let fly on this insane page:https://www.facebook.com/JesusDaily

So does anyone share my experience of seeing their old friends become hypnotized by christinsanity?

Yes. Daily. Especially daily if I go onto Facebook daily. I try not to do so. I attempt to limit my Facebook visits to 2-3 times each week because family expects me to be on there and communicate with them. Like you, I am assaulted with all of their religious crap (some family members and more high school classmates). I "like" photos that people post, but if the photos are of them participating in church activities, I won't "like" those photos no matter if they already have 72 likes posted. I "like" smart posts, but if the posts are jibber-jabber, I mostly ignore them. Every once in a while I will reply to someone that they may have their facts wrong and give them a link to some helpful information (Snopes is a popular place for that). I can only think of one time that anyone challenged me and they didn't get very far. When shown something contradictory, these people stop commenting on their own fallacious threads. I don't reply often to these kinds of posts to prevent myself from becoming the overbearing asshole for which I have the great potential to be. Perhaps one thing that helps is that my classmates often recognize me as being one of the smartest kids in class (so posted by a few of them on Facebook already[1]), so perhaps there is a minimum respect level given to me because of my past standing. Just a guess. I'm also not afraid to admit that I don't know anything about a particular topic on Facebook. Perhaps that helps, too.

So, what to do about all of this religious pandering? Just keep doing whatever it is that you do. Eventually, over the generations the younger minds will become more liberated. It will happen. The fewer edicts of the "good book" that they are compelled to follow, the fewer reasons they will have to cling to it.

You know, I'm not so bothered by the FB feed despite the religious tone to many posts. The only time I really say anything is when they take shots at non-belief, try to inject their beliefs into schools or society, or directly engage me. If they want to say they had a great day and praise god, eh whats it to me?

I think people have been led to believe that going to church and doing that whole thing is "grown up"... you know, husband/wife, kids, house, dog, church...

I guess it's such a shocker for me not only because it is such a defining thing in my life (the escape out of delusion), but to see people who I know were once free of the mind virus of christianity, now fully infected, holding utterly mad, supernatural false beliefs & world view. They are completely unaware of my journey and familiarity with the subject, and I find myself almost bursting, wanting to decapitate their raft of nonsense, but as I think we all would agree, I would wind-up looking like a jerk as FB is just not the appropriate venue for all that.

That Jesus page was like a bunch of little grade school kids passing notes," Do you like Jesus, check YES or NO".

Enough to make you barf when done by adults.

Indeed. What I find interesting about that page, is the overwhelming "He died for me/us" theme. It seems that the ancient idea of scapegoating (placing the sins of the tribe onto a goat and driving out into the desert) is still rattling around in the brains of present-day humans.

Yeah. I haven't kept up with my high school friends much - in real life or on facebook. A few high school friends showed me the honor of coming to my mom's funeral, and I "friended" them, but they are not too active. I did a search and found one high school friend, and saw that he was a teaparty lunatic, so I didn't send a friend request. Honestly, I was crushed.

With college friends, however, it has been quite different. It has been really amazing to reconnect with such wonderful people after so many years. I connected with one dear friend and her family on a vacation to Florida, and we had a marvelous time. I adored her husband and her kids, and we spoke with the ease and comfort of people who see each other regularly. I've also been really interested to see what folks have been up to, and the issues that are important to them.

Uh, because christians like my brother think people like me are being manipulated by a devil to not believe in a god. So why would christians like him (and I know ALL christians don't believe the same) post on a site who's owner is being manipulated by a devil to not believe in a god?

If christianity were true, why are there so many different denominations? If it were true, wouldn't ALL christians believe the same things?

Stick around, it won't be long before you become a non believer. I've seen quite a few believers deconvert here.